Date:	Wednesday 3 January 1945
Time:	Approx 16.00
Type:	Avro Lancaster Mk I
Owner/operator:	467 Squadron, RAAF
Registration:	NF908
MSN:	PO-C
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 7 / Occupants: 7
Other fatalities:	0
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	The Roaches near Leek, Staffordshire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire
Destination airport:	RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire

Narrative:
Avro Lancaster B Mk. I NF908/PO-C, 467 Squadron, RAAF: Written off (destroyed) 3 January 1945 when flew into high ground at The Roaches near Leek, Staffordshire.

The crew of NF908 had not been at No.467 Sqn for long, being posted in from No.5 Lancaster Finishing School in at the beginning of December 1944. From available records it would appear that most of the crew met at No.27 OTU at Lichfield in July 1944, though Sgt Lees, the sole RAF airman on the crew, would have joined them at No.1654 HCU or No.5 LFS.

At around 14:30hrs on the 3rd January 1945 the crew of Lancaster NF908 took off from RAF Waddington near Lincoln for a fighter affiliation exercise with an alternative of a 1-hour cross-country navigation exercise, should the weather have been deemed suitable. About 90 minutes into the flight with the sun almost set (sunset was 16:03) the aircraft descended through low cloud and snow showers and flew into the eastern side of the Roaches a few miles from the Staffordshire town of Leek and was completely destroyed by fire. All seven crew on board killed (no survivors)

After the crash the site was buried by snow, which for several days hid the bodies of some members of the crew. By the 6th January 1945 all but Flight Sergeant Dunbar had been recovered by personnel from No.28 MU at Harpur Hill near Buxton.

The crew - all members of the Royal Australian Air Force, except for the Flight Engineer - were as follows:

Crew:
Flying Officer Walter Vernon Wilfred Allamby, RAAF 428516 - Pilot
Sergeant Norman Lees RAFVR - 2218806 - Flight Engineer 

Flight Sergeant Geoffrey James Dunbar, RAAF 424391 - Navigator

Flight Sergeant Richard Emonson RAAF 430484 - Wireless Operator/Air Gunner

Flight Lieutenant Jack Ivan Pritchard, RAAF 421047 - Bomb Aimer
(See source #4. for a studio portrait of this man).
Flight Sergeant Cleveland Charles Watson, RAAF 434547 - Air Gunner

Flight Sergeant Thomas Edward Harold Wright RAAF 430728 - Air Gunner

All six crew fatalities were buried in adjacent graves in the RAF Section of the Cemetery at Chester (Blacon), Cheshire

The Roaches seems to have been something of an "aircraft graveyard" with two other crashes in the locality within 24 hours of the loss of Lancaster NF908. Half an hour later, on the same day (at around 14:30hrs) and just over 3 miles away, Douglas A-20G 43-9958 of the USAAF flew into the ground at Flash, also in snowy weather but in much poorer light, killing pilot First Lieutenant Eugene H. Howard. The previous evening Boeing B-17G 43-38944 had flown into Birchenough Hill (with the loss of all crew on board) which is within sight of where NF908 crashed (on a clear day).

The Roaches (from the French les roches – the rocks) is a prominent rocky ridge above Leek and Tittesworth Reservoir in the Staffordshire Peak District of England. The ridge with its rock formations rises steeply to 505 m (1,657 ft).

1. The Lancaster File (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1985
2. https://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co.uk/crash_sites/peak-district/avro-lancaster-nf908-the-roaches/
3. https://aircrewremembered.com/allamby-walter.html
4. https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P10320307
5. 467 Squadron Operational Record Book (Record of Events for the period 1 to 31 January 1945): National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 27/1931/26 at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D8412772
6. Aircraft Movement Card (Air Ministry Form AM.78): https://lancasterbombersinfo.ipage.com/Data/Form-78s/Lancaster/NF906-NF975/mobile/index.html
7. Aircraft Accident Record Card (Air Ministry Form AM.1180): https://lancasterbombersinfo.ipage.com/Data/Form-1180/Lancaster/1945/January/prt1/1.html
8. https://aircrewremembered.com/allamby-walter.html
9. https://www.rafcommands.com/database/serials/details.php?uniq=NF908
10. https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-avro-683-lancaster-i-mt-roaches-7-killed
11. https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6421461
12. https://peakwreckhunters.blogspot.com/2007/10/avro-lancaster-mki-nf908.html
13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._467_Squadron_RAAF#History
14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Waddington#Second_World_War
15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Roaches

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
07-Jan-2018 09:47	gerard57	Added
27-Aug-2018 17:54	Nepa	Updated [Operator, ]
21-Mar-2020 18:21	Anon.	Updated [Source, ]
29-Jan-2025 21:54	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, Category, ]
30-Jan-2025 17:20	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative, ]